Beastie Girls: Northern State

STRAIGHT OUTTA LONG ISLAND — that's "the real suburban part, not some seaside town" according to the band's bio — Northern State is back to give hip-hop something it's never really considered: the Caucasian female point of view.

And while comparisons to the Beastie Boys are inevitable (and certainly aren't shunned) for three white chicks rocking microphones and touting production help from the Beastie Boys' Adrock, the women in Northern State are paving an unprecedented road all their own.

Providing the genre a much-needed dose of feminism, the trio's alternative touch to hip-hop recalls the days when foresisters like Queen Latifah kicked down doors demanding "U.N.I.T.Y." and re-imagines those sorts of political slogans with a refreshing dose of humor.

Following a 2002 four-song demo ("Hip-Hop You Haven't Heard"), a 2003 E.P. ("Dying in Stereo") and 2004's "real record" ("All City"), Northern State found itself put on the backburner due to record label consolidation that left the group high and dry.

Now the ladies are back, and buzz is building around their yet untitled forthcoming record, whose release will coincide with the September kick-off of a major tour of the U.S. and Canada with Tegan and Sara.

Northern State performs at the Black Cat on Monday night, and Hesta Prynn rapped to Express on behalf of bandmates Sprout and Spero about the trio's path through underground hip-hop.

» EXPRESS: So you're finally over this record label debacle?
» PRYNN: I can't talk about everything yet but we got a much better deal. It's not a huge, giant label. It's a really cool label and it's a way better look for us.

» EXPRESS: Basically Columbia tried to do a number on you?
» PRYNN: It took us like a year to get out of that deal which is why we've been on the DL for a little while.

» EXPRESS: I thought I was frustrated trying to keep up with all the label reconfigurations.
» PRYNN: What happened was they gave us a blank check to A&R our own record. And we did. We worked with Pete Rock, Mugs, ?uestlove and The High and Mighty. It was like a year and a half and we had made it in New York and we made it L.A. We were in Philly; we toured Europe with The Roots; we did a million and one things. When we got back to the label and turned in the record, BMG had [merged with] Sony and nobody on our team at Columbia was there anymore. All the people who had signed us we're really excited about our project and our record. They had been supporting us all this time and encouraged us to finally do whatever we wanted and we did. But when we got back these new people had a whole different agenda and we weren't on it.

» EXPRESS: Other than the Beastie Boys, who sparked your love for hip-hop?
» PRYNN: Personally, I love Jay-Z; I think he's the greatest rapper ever. I love the Wu-Tang Clan — yesterday we talked about Wu-Tang Clan's first record for like a whole meeting. I think Nas is a great writer. I was more into commercial hip-hop until, like, 2002. The others girls are more into golden age kind of stuff, like old De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, maybe even Arrested Development.

» EXPRESS: Alternative hip-hop cast a wide net, how would you describe your sound?
» PRYNN: It's more like electro-rock.

» EXPRESS: How'd you cultivate your sound on the new album?
» PRYNN: Things with Columbia were going south and we met this producer from [the band] Shitaki Monkey, Chuck Birdy. We really liked their record and we were like, "We love this. Can we work with this guy?" Columbia was like, "You're out of money," and they wouldn't let us put it down. So we said, "If we ever make another record, you're going to produce the entire record," and he was like, "OK." And he produced the entire record except for two songs, which we did with Adrock from the Beastie Boys. We definitely went to [Birdy] because his band has an electro-rock sound that we really liked. Together we were really able to blend that electro-rock thing with our hip-hop thing and meet a really interesting, song-driven record.

» EXPRESS: Who's responsible for the lyrics on these songs?
» PRYNN: We all write our own lyrics. We almost take turns on the choruses and stuff but it's like, if you said it, you wrote it.

» EXPRESS: And what about the live instrumentation?
» PRYNN: I play keys. Sprout plays guitar, bass and drums. Spero plays some guitar. Everyone kind of fiddles a little.

» EXPRESS: Do you intend to fiddle onstage here in D.C.?
» PRYNN: We have one live show we do; we call it "Man Versus The Machine," where we have one guy on a D.J. setup and then we have another guy on drums — that's what we're doing in D.C. And then we do a show where we have a full live band. And then we do a show that is just a D.J. set. We're working on a show that's going to be just us.

» EXPRESS: You seem to be having more fun on the new songs; are you trying to branch away from your politically charged roots?
» PRYNN: I think we've grown a lot separately as musicians, and as a band, and while our politics are still part of things, they're maybe not as in the forefront as they were. But they're still very important to us. We're trying to show an alternative to what's currently being shown in commercial music and with women in commercial music.

» EXPRESS: You must get a lot of funny looks when you step to the mic?
» PRYNN: A lot of people find our music empowering because we're doing something that's atypical for how we we're raised and our race and gender. But we're kind of doing our own thing. We're just making music that we love and people seem to like it.

» EXPRESS: Yeah, you've got a lot of positive buzz surrounding you.
» PRYNN: Especially with the new record, I think the reason maybe you're seeing that again is because we just started releasing songs from the new record on MySpace and I think that people are getting the memo that we're back. The press is coming out again. And we are excited that it's positive. When we first started, the press was very mixed. People either loved us or hated us or were shocked by what we were doing. I think people are over that. This time they're focusing on our music because our music is sounding good now; it was always good but now it's really good.

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Bitch & The Exciting Conclusion and Natalie E. Illum, 9 p.m., $10; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)